Active Engagement in an Effort to Serve the Community

Prompt: What does Citizenship mean to you and what does your sorority do to instill citizenship in you?

To me, the title of this blog describes citizenship perfectly. It is more than just voting on election day and recycling your pop cans. It is being engaged in the community and taking responsibility for things that need to happen. Community service is a huge part of this. Take action on the needs of the community and do your part to make it a better place for everyone. I also really like the phrase civic responsibility. It is our duty as citizens to take responsibility for the community in which we live. If a part of the community is struggling, we should all be struggling together and working toward a solution. The song 'Do you feel' by The Rocket Summer really puts citizenship into perspective for me. It brings up some of the excuses of why people don't take responsibility for the world that they live in and for me it's a motivator to not act like the song describes.

"I'm thinking 'bout other things I heard about today

all this week and tomorrow

and how these hands can create some better things, a better ring

but you see for now I got my own things"

These first few lines claim that we can all create better things, help the community and make a difference in the world. But the easiest thing is to blow it off with the last line 'but you see for now I got my own things' Everyone is always going to have their own things going on, but it is our civic responsibility to care about the community around us as well.

Here's a video of the song. It's great:) Plus all my favorite people are in it: look for Andrew McMahon, Alex Gaskarth and the two boys from Paramore

I love the part where it says to 'keep preaching to heal the world, lip service makes us look great.' A lot of times people are a lot of talk and no action. It's great to say we need to heal the world, make it a better place etc. but each and every citizen needs to be personally responsible for doing this. To me, that is citizenship.

To answer the second part of the question, my sorority and the Sorority and Fraternity Community as a whole does so many things to instill a sense of citizenship in me. It starts with the mission of Alpha Xi Delta. Part of it is to instill community responsibility. It is the mission of my sorority to provide us all with a sense of citizenship. The emphasis on community service has really helped to do this. There are constantly opportunities to make a difference in the community and the more involved I've gotten with service, the better citizen I've become. Also, with all the leadership training I have gotten, I've really learned that no matter what you want to do just go for it. If you want to change the world, just do it (like Nike). This has really motivated me that with enough passion I can not only be a good citizen but really work to better the communities that I belong in.

The Words of the Wise

Last week we had the priviledge of intereacting with a panel composed of some of the top student leaders in the Sorority and Fraternity Community, as well as Sharrel and Kurt who work with Sorority and Fraternity Life at the Ohio Union. I have interacted with all of these people many times before, but have never really gotten into conversation about the problems facing our community and how they feel these problems need to be addressed. It was cool to discuss these issues with them, hear their take on everything and get ideas for the future.

One issue that was addressed was senior apathy and older members not being as active as they need to or could be. Some panelists suggested this was because members feel that they already put their hard work in, and the younger girls need to take control. When I was younger, I did feel that way but I have a new perspective now that I am a senior. Although I am a little burnt out on recruitment workshops and informational events that I've heard a million times, I think about the girls I looked up to when I was a younger member and realize I want to be that. I want to model the way and be a good example for the younger members. I think this point needs to be stressed to older members, and if they are shown appreciation for participating and being a good role model that should be recognized.

I also think our chapters are set up to push seniors out 2 quarters before they graduate. As a senior, I am losing all of my positions at the end of the quarter. I still want to be really involved, but I am finding a hard time finding things to be involved with. I whole-heartedly agree that leadership is not positional, and I can still make an impact without a position, but it's a weird feeling that I am losing a big chunk of responsibility at the end of this quarter. I feel like some seniors feel less ownership of the chapter, and less responsible and therefore slacking off is inevitable. To keep people from feeling this way, the panelists suggested that chapters highlight seniors and continually remind them how important they are to continueing the growth of the chapter.

Another topic brought up during the panelist was the negative stereotype on the Sorority and Fraternity Community. It was interesting to hear everyone's thoughts on this. It is very apparent that these stereotypes exist for a reason. One person can perpetuate a stereotype for everyone, and we are obviously not perfect. The only thing we can do is strive for better. Continue to work on things we don't excel in and striving to be the best members we can be. Living our rituals and letting other people see the values we possess will only help get rid of stereotypes. Are we ever going to change everyone's mind? Of course not, but if we are living by the guidlines set by our founders we are bound to change a few.

It was a great experience having the panel come in and I really appreciate the time and effort put into that!

Kristen

OATH

"An oath is either a statement of fact or promise calling upon someone that the oath maker considers sacred"

Each and every person in the Greek Community took an oath. An oath to uphold the values and ritual of the fraternity and live by that oath every single day. It's not just something you say. It's not just a promise you make to 'get in.' It's a lifetime commitment to everything the organization stands for and a dedication to each and every single member of your organizati0n.

Last weekend I had the privilege of meeting Ginny Carrol, an Alpha Xi Delta that works at our national organization and truly exemplifies what it means to live the ritual. The oath she made to Alpha Xi was not just words. It changed her life, her career path and made her the women she is today. I could not be more proud to call her my sister. Here's why:

This is the Circle of Sisterhood. It is an organization Ginny founded with other sorority women, to show the worth and value of a sorority. She used the ideals and values exuberated by our founders as her motivation for this idea. Our founder's believed in "an appreciation of merit and worth" (as quoted from our symphony). In a time when education was not easily accessible by all, our founders stood strong in their belief that each and every person had worth, and deserved education. They fought for this belief and now Ginny is continuing the fight with the Circle of Sisterhood. Every women has worth. Every women deserves a fair chance to "realize their potential" (Alpha Xi's vison). And now Ginny has brought together women from many different chapters to help women who may not have had a chance, succeed.

It was an amazing experience meeting Ginny. She gets it. She understands our values and our Ritual. She looks back on the oath she made to Alpha Xi Delta and incorporates it in her daily life. She has dedicated her life to the vision of our founders and is inspiring women everywhere to realize there potential. Hearing her speak was beyond inspiring. If every single person in the Greek Community held strong to their oaths, quite like she had, this campus and the world would be a completely different place.

I think it is important to constantly think about the oath you made to your chapter, and study the ritual. Figure out how it can apply to your life and continue to live on the path your founder's created.

I wanted to post this video as well. It is a good way to sit back and think about the words of the Alpha Xi Delta Symphony and question how I, as an individual, and my chapter are living up to this promise we make every Monday.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

After last week I really do think we all avoid the topic of how we are incongruent to our values. It's never an easy or fun thing to admit, but in reality it happens all the time and is one of the main reasons negative stereotypes of the Greek community still exist. It's also hard to find a place to start. Although there are so many areas of all our Greek lives we can work to improve, we still do some pretty amazing stuff and that's important to keep in mind as well.

Last week when I was riding a bus home from a TG, girls started up some chants and cheers that are tradition in our chapter. However, after stopping to think about this, these chants say a lot about Alpha Xi Delta, however most of what they say are pretty negative things. If someone heard one of these for the first time and didn't know anything else about my chapter, they would not claim that we were women of value, who have an appreciation for merit and worth, are dedicated to the service of others in an effort to realize our own potential and passionate about our fraternal growth. In fact, they'd probably say the exact opposite. Although the chants are fun, we are claiming to be every negative stereotype of a sorority women. Are we that? Absolutely not, but it's times like these where these negative stereotypes are screaming a lot louder than our values.

Another thing that has always really bugged me is time and money spent on socials and greek week and t-shirts. I am the community service chair of Alpha Xi Delta and a few times I've asked for more money in my budget so I can plan some fun and creative service activities. I've never really been given much to work with. What kills me is how much we spend on socials. When a gift for a fraternity costs twice as much as the service budget, I'd say that qualifies as an incongruency to our values. Our chapter values service to others and as much as socials are a huge part of being in a social sorority, I think it wouldn't hurt anyone to have a little more time and effort go to service over social. I'm pretty sure our founder's weren't too concerned with cool TG themes and Greek Week partners and I think we can do a better job at witholding why our fraternity was started in the first place. I'm sure the same could be said about every chapter. If the same number of hours spent at Tgs a quarter, was spent doing service by each and every community member, our service hours would be crazy high compared to what they are now.

Another pet peeve of mine is philanthropy events that involve selling food late at night to people who are, more likely than not, intoxicated. Philanthropy is about coming together as a community to help each other raise money for things that are important to us. I also think that as a community we can come up with a better way to do this than feeding drunk people. For example, Sigma Phi Epsilon just hosted A Very Sharey Halloween where tons of community members went trick-or-treating for canned goods in various neighborhoods. HOW AWESOME DID THIS MAKE OUR COMMUNITY LOOK?? We were out in our letters, doing something for a good cause and maybe changed a couple minds about some negative Greek stereotypes. On the other hand, you have the late night food events where members of the Greek community are stumbling around, stuffing their faces to fufill their late night munchies. How awesome do we look here? Although we are raising money, these events still tend to reiterate negative Greek stereotypes in the process.

To end this, I hate how negative this blog is because the sorority and fraternity community means the world to me. We do so many amazing things and I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for my time in Alpha Xi Delta and the community. Do I think any of these pet peeves of mine our going to change overnight? Not at all, but I do think they are things to think about when complaining why the community has such a bad rep sometimes. We give ourselves the bad name as much as we give it the good name.

I couldn't really think of any fun things to add to this blog like pictures so I think I'll just share this experience really quick. On Saturday, my entire chapter went to Mansfield for our retreat. We got to do a high ropes course and other team builders and it was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever done. My favorite moment was when I was climbing this 50 ft pole. Once you got to the top, you were supposed to stand on it, but when I got up there I was terrified. I kept yelling that I didn't want to do it and just wanted to come down but all my sisters were on the ground telling me that I could do it and they had me if I fell (they were holding the ropes). With there support I was able to do it and it was the best feeling ever!! It was such an awesome day and I gained so much of it. Here are some pics!

This is me on the pole:


Flying through the air:


My favorite people ever=)